"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against Chinese oppression and China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."
Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States of America
Just over a week ago a peace conference that was to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, was cancelled. Five Nobel Prize laureates were to have attended. The conference would have been focused on ways in which soccer can fight racism and xenophobia. Soccer is one of the most popular and readily accessible sports in a world rife with violence, displacement, inequality and injustice fueled by racism and xenophobia.
South Africa's history has been plagued by the horrors of racism and xenophobia. The country is scheduled to host the 2010 soccer World Cup and would seem the ideal host for such a peace conference at this time. Among those scheduled to attend the conference on peace were Tibetan exile HH the Dalai Lama, and South Africa's retired Anglican Archbishop Desmund Tutu and former President F.W. de Klerk, all Noble Peace Prize laureates. The peace conference had been organized by South African soccer authorities.
What a fine and worthy idea and effort. Soccer for Peace! Soccer against racism and xenophobia!
In an action that shames itself, its people and the very concept of human rights, the South African government denied a visa to the Dalai Lama. A government spokesman, Thabo Masebe, said the Dalai Lama's presence at the conference "would not be in South Africa's best interests." That, I suppose, would depend on whether one views standing up for human rights or rolling over in craven obsequiousness as in the best interests of one's country.
The organizers of the conference decided it wouldn't be in anyone's best interests to have a peace conference to which the Dalai Lama was denied participation.
China, a country where human rights is an oxymoron, bullied South Africa into denying the visa. South Africa, a country that only 15 years ago fully emerged from apartheid and elected Nelson Mandela as president, brought further shame on itself by denying that the Dalai Lama's visa was rejected because of bullying from China. Rolling over and doing a bully's bidding is what it is, shameful enough. Doing the bully's bidding and lying about it is another level of degradation. Morally, South Africa has come a long way down since the first years after apartheid when it focused on human rights not only in its own country but around the world. Its reputation has been tarnished in recent years by its refusal to condemn Myanmar's military junta and Zimbabwe's repressive President Robert Mugabe while holding a rotating seat on the U.N. Security Council.
China, consistently shameful and shameless about its oppression of human rights, is equally arrogant about its bullying, and contradicted South Africa's obvious rollover. Chinese diplomats told the South African media that Beijing had "urged" South Africa to deny the Dalai Lama's visit or "risk damaging bilateral relations." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said to reporters in Beijing, "All countries should respect China's sovereignty and territorial integrity ... and oppose Tibetan independence. We appreciate relevant countries' measures."
South Africa seems to have forgotten that its present relative prosperity, democracy, human rights and freedoms were gained less than 20 years ago in large part because freedom-loving people in other countries of the world had the moral authority (and courage) to speak out on behalf of the human rights of South Africans. Freedom-loving people did not roll over, or, in many cases, refused to roll over any longer for the economic bully on the soccer field.
Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, helped plan the peace conference. He said, "For me personally, and the role my grandfather has played in founding our democracy, together with his colleagues, this rejection by the government to not issue a visa to the Dalai Lama is really tainting our efforts of democracy. I don't think that as sovereign, independent country, we need to succumb to international pressures."
Desmund Tutu said of his government's action, "We are shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure. I feel deeply distressed and ashamed."
F.W. de Klerk released a statement that "the government's decision to exclude the Dalai Lama was irreconcilable with the country's commitment to freedom of expression and made a mockery of the whole purpose of the peace conference."
I think Pelosi has it just right. Speak up to the bully on the soccer field in the name of peace and human rights. Or don't and lose moral authority in the guise of ... what?
